#311: Loyalty Leadership In a Crisis

Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today’s episode is being hosted by my colleague Amanda Cromhout, the founder of Truth, an international loyalty consultancy firm based in Cape Town, South Africa.

Today, I’m also excited to let you know that every episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty now has our new unique feedback link, which lets you add your comments, questions and feedback after you listen, simply go to the show notes for this episode on any platform and look for the link called feedback. It’s so easy and you can comment instantly.

Thanks for being part of the Let’s Talk Loyalty community, and please do enjoy this episode today hosted by Amanda Cromhout.

This episode is brought to you by Collinson Worldwide, leaders in loyalty, creating and orchestrating loyalty initiatives and programs for some of the world’s biggest brands in travel, retail, and financial service. Doing it globally for over 30 years. Want to know more? Go to collinsongroup.com.

Amanda: Today I’m delighted to interview Cécile Henry, who is the IBL Group loyalty Manager.

IBL has operations in 18 countries, and it is based in Mauritius. Its loyalty program is Wiiv Rewards, which Cécile manages in the Mauritian market. Wiiv Rewards was launched in 2019, so whilst being a young program, it has already won numerous awards. Nevertheless, the focus of our interview with Cécile is less about the loyalty program awards, but focuses on a major crisis Cécile and her team faced last year.

Cécile talks us through how she and her team had less than 24 hours to rescue the program. When hearing of its loyalty platform provider was facing immediate insolvency. Enjoy listening to how the Wiiv Rewards Team prioritized customers first and how they coped with this enormous crisis. There are deep lessons for all of us and I’m so grateful to Cécile for her transparency and insights into this turnaround program.

So today I’m extra specially excited to welcome back to Let’s Talk Loyalty. It’s her second time on the Let’s Talk loyalty show. Cécile Henry, who is the IBL Group loyalty manager, Cécile, so fabulous to have you with us.

Cécile: I’m so happy to hear you Amanda. It’s uh, always, uh, a pleasure for me to e-meet you, to, uh, to have a conversation with you.

Uh, uh, it’s a pleasure for me. Thank you.

Amanda: Well, thanks for joining us, and I know you’ve got an absolutely incredible story, a loyalty story to tell the audience of Let’s Talk Loyalty. So before we get into that, cuz I can’t wait to get into that. What is your favorite loyalty program and why?

Cécile: Uh, Amanda, I will say that for, for me, is the Wiiv Program

Amanda: wonderful.

Cécile: Yes. I will explain why if you, if I, if I may, because in Mauritius, where, um, Where I’m living and where is, uh, where Wiiv is existing in Mauritius Island. The world of Loyalty Programs is still an immature, excuse my english, Immature market. Yeah. So Wiiv for me is quite a unique, uh, coalition program in the country, uh, with a mix of different types of benefits and rewards and easy redemption.

And we are, uh, alone. We are quite, uh, the only one who for the moment, doing this type of rewarding and type of easiness for redemption. So this is, uh, why I would say we as a consumer, as me, myself, a member, uh, it is my best.

Amanda: Yeah, then, then you have every reason to claim it as your favorite loyalty program.

You’re getting that absolute satisfaction of free goodies with the rewards, and it’s the only one in the market that you operate in. So, absolutely. That’s great to hear. And it’s absolutely fantastic for me personally to hear you talk about Wiiv Rewards because um, as you know, I had the absolute honor of working with the IBL Group in the conception, design, strategy and execution to launch of wiiv rewards. So it really is probably Truth’s favorite case study. So thank you for talking to me today. So before, before we go any further, I just wanted to ask you to explain a little bit about your background, because it’s not a traditional loyalty background, and yet you are holding this fantastic position for such a, uh, an important program within the IBL Group.

So what brings you to. Give us your background that brings you to head up, Wiiv Rewards.

Cécile: Um, uh, what I can say is that, you know, uh, during nine years I was the head of communication and CSR of IBL, uh, and, uh, after one year, um, of, uh, away from the company I had the chance to have the, the mandate to work on the communication plan for the new, uh, IBL Group loyalty program, uh, as known as, uh, Wiiv today, uh, and before I worked in Canada for eight years and my first job was in direct marketing, uh, this time. So, uh, it was, uh, it’s funny how to see, uh, my first job helped me to understand the power of data and targeted communication and promotion. Uh, imagine 18 years, earlier. So yeah. I had the chance to be part of a project team on this, uh, on, for this new IBL loyalty program. And, uh, and I work with you, Amanda, have the chance to be, uh, coached by you.

I learned a lot from you. On the, on this journey. And, um, I will say that I’m lucky that, uh, you and also IBL trust me enough to give me the chance to manage Wiiv since then. So this is a, and I do a lot of marketing position also in Canada, so it’s a mix. I, I really, it’s funny to see how all my professional experiences. Add me to, uh, to add this, uh, position today, you know,

Amanda: And look at Wiiv now, I mean, we are gonna talk about a different side to Wiiv Rewards in a moment, but if I look at Wiiv, Where it has come in such a short space of time. After launch, you immediately picked up the mag, Loyalty Magazine Awards as a runner up, first runner up for the best newcomer, but then you actually won the category of best loyalty program in Africa and Middle East, which was just phenomenal.

And then recently, now in 2022, you’ve picked up the first runner up Accolade for the IBL Excellence Innovation Award, and I know that IBL Group is all around innovation, so that is obviously a huge recognition from externally, the loyalty industry with the Loyalty Magazine Awards, which is now known as the International Loyalty Awards, but, Secondly, within the IBL group, you’ve got this huge recognition.

So, you know, that’s real kudos to get recognized inside and outside of your organization. So the real reason I wanted to talk to you today isn’t to just talk about Wiiv Rewards because you’ve done that previously with Paula, I think last year, um, was to really highlight an issue, that I hope a lot of companies never have to go through, and what you described to me was absolute crisis management in a loyalty program.

Now, my summation of this very, very briefly, but I’m gonna ask you to expand on it, is that the loyalty platform, which was an external vendor, a technology provider, Went in solvents literally overnight, and you had I think less than 24 hours notice to handle this. Um, you can clarify those facts for me, but, and the story you told me when we discussed you coming onto Let’s Talk Loyalty absolutely blew my mind.

And I thought it was definitely worth sharing with the global loyalty industry. I’ve given a very brief summary, but you’ve come out of it stronger. You’ve come out of it with still happy customers and still a significant presence in your home market. So please, could you talk us through the timeline of what happened?

Let’s, let’s start with the first 24 hours. What happened?

Cécile: Yes, it was a race against time, Amanda, really. Um, and I would say also that, uh, my previous experience in crisis management as a head of communication, the, was really helpful also in this, uh, manage, uh, crisis management. So, um, this is, uh, what I was saying before, the combination of experiences, uh, to be able to, to deal with all, all kind of situation.

And this one was a big one. Yeah, let’s say that 24 hours before, um, Uh, the cutoff of the, the, the system. Um, I had the feeling that, uh, something was not going well. Uh, and I asked my team to, uh, download, uh, all the database and all the reports and everything we could, uh, download from the system, uh, during the night, after the closing of the, of the stores, and we did, uh, it was a good decision because the, the day after we receive, um, notice that, unfortunately, this company, uh, went to bankrupt. Wow. And they had to seize, uh, the services, uh, in two hours. So

Amanda: Sorry, Cécile in two hours.

Cécile: Yes, yes. We got, we got, yeah. It was, uh, really a question of, uh, of hours.

Okay. Um, so, uh, but when I got this feeling, we knew that, uh, the company was in, uh, a difficult situation and the company was in the merger and acquisition process. Uh, normally, the science were good and positive okay. For this process. But, uh, yeah. So, but 24 hours before I was like, I’m not sure it’s going well.

And I called for a crisis management meeting and say, this is possible because we knew that this date of 30th of September, um, part of September was, uh, uh, a crucial date for the company. Okay. Yeah. So, and we decided to be prepared and, um, So when we, did the downloading of all the database, we knew that if there was a crisis, we could at least, uh, know how much, uh, we need to, how much points all the members got on the, on the system, et cetera, et cetera.

So, uh, in the morning, uh, of the day where the system, uh, was cut off. Yeah. Uh, we also took another good decision, uh, from the operations. It came from our partners, I would say, but for, uh, being, uh, to cut also with the system to shut down to ourselves, shut down the system. Um, Because, uh, we didn’t want to have new transaction on the database and then not be able to, to have it again, uh, completely correct, et cetera, et cetera.

Okay. And, and, and yes, and two hours before the cutoff, uh, we could receive, uh, a letter saying, that it was, uh, the end of everything. And we literally see, uh, four years of work, Amanda, shut down in front of us, see the website, shut down, the system, shut down everything shut down. It was really something special. That’s incredible. Yeah. This is incredible. Um, So it was the first thing that we did. And the first, and this, I think, saved the program. Yeah. Uh, which really it was, uh, that’s.

Amanda: Yeah, that’s just incredible. So you had the, you had the gut reaction 24 hours before to do something and you saved the database of a good acquired database that you’ve built up over time.

And then I love the initiative you took to stop transactions so that customers then don’t get further disappointed that those transactions weren’t tracked into points. But then surely then you must have embarked upon a, like a challenge in terms of communication to your members to be able to explain all of this.

What did you do about communications?

Cécile: So yes, it, okay. So this is, was took a lot of time. Yes. So when we knew that it’ll be the end of the story, the game over, we call it the game over , our crisis management team, uh, we, started to communicate, I mean, we, we started to to, oh, sorry. In the morning, work on also all the communication crisis management.

And, um, so we work, uh, really fast and hard to be able to be ready and we send, we could for, we could send our email to all the, our members or SMS because our communication system was not impacted by the, uh, the service provider, it was outside the service. It was in integration integrated by API with our, we have a main, uh, the core system, but it was also independent.

So when the core system shut down, this was, uh, still working, uh, and database. Then we integrate with the database. We could communicate again, so we communicate in a transparent way. And we said that exactly the truth, uh, to our customer, that we was going through, uh, unprecedented situation, that the service provider, went to bankrupt, but we reassure our members that all the points were safe, everything was safe, and we got all the information needed to be able to enter this situation. So this is what we did. We did for to our members, to our employees, to our partners, to our potential partners, because, believe me, we were talking to big, uh, potential partners the week before and the day of the crash, we at a big meeting.

So we had to call back to say, uh, sorry, you’ll some information. And this is where we, and uh, so, and also to, I got five year and, uh, as the, the, the cutoff of this system shut down. It was the 1st of October, so all our birthday offer, already went out in the morning. We didn’t think about stopping this, uh, the day before.

So, uh, we had also to communicate to the, to the person that it won’t work, the birthday gift won’t work anymore. Uh, so yeah, and then also we actually do a landing page for the website. And, uh, so we communicate, each time we got some news to share to our partners. We were, uh, talking to them.

Amanda: So effectively your communication was A, we know there’s a problem, B points are not going to be issued from here on until further notice, but your points are safeguarded, which I think is obviously critical, but you did explain to me earlier, so, uh, please share with everyone.

You did find a way of keeping the program alive. So whilst you weren’t issuing points at this crisis time, what did you do to keep members happy? So to speak.

Cécile: Yes. Um, of course the member couldn’t anymore redeem their points. This was also, uh, bad news for them. Yeah. But what we did, and the partners did, uh, in this, uh, crisis management, uh, committee, when we took this decision to, to cut off from the system in the morning, there also, um, Uh, did something on the POS on therefore POS system.

They, they, they give the equivalence of, uh, uh, in, in discount, let’s say. Um, They switch the earning rates to a discount rate directly on the POS system. Okay. So it was like a direct discount, a stands discount, the equivalent of the amount of points, but at least something was, uh, giving, yeah. To the Wiiver. And the other thing is that we also continue to, because we got also discount partners, we got earning and redeem partners and discount partners. So we push more communication, we push, we communicate more on the discounts at the moment, and we also do, uh, a lot of kids to be able to continue to have something to, to share with them and to, to engage them on the program.

Amanda: Great. Okay. So straight away there was a way that members could at least continue to benefit and not feel, feel that pressure of, um, you know, the complete change of the program. Yes. So after, after you went through that process, what’s did you then, obviously there was this crisis management and as you said, game over day.

The program has got a good following in Mauritius, it’s really great number of Mauritians are part of the program. What did you then do to rebuild Wiiv?

Cécile: So, uh, okay, so what, what was amazing now, I think in the stories that, uh, after the first 24 hours dealing with, uh, the database, uh, and the communication and all this, uh, urgent task.

Um, my IT manager, uh, came to and and said, you know what? I think we can rebuild the system. I think we can rebuild the system using the reversal engineering. Wow. We bought, yeah. Yeah. We’ve bought, we bought, uh, more cost for the partners. uh, we won’t, we won’t need them to also rebuild api. Okay. So, um, my IT manager exposed me, uh, what he was, planning to do, and, uh, but he was really confident to be able to do it.

Uh, so we say, okay, let’s go, let’s do it. Um, and uh, and in 48 hours we were a bit lucky, but because the, the crash was on a Friday, so we had the weekend. Uh, to work like crazy . Uh, so the first thing we did after, uh, secure the database was, uh, to have a, an importer, the possibility for the call center to have access to the account of the members, to be able to see the points.

It was the first thing for us, because we can say to the Wiiver, okay, your, your, your, your points are secure. But if you call the call center and the call center is not able to say, I see that you got this amount of points on your account, then, the member won’t feel secure at all. You understand? So it was the, the first thing that we did.

It was to, uh, and the team within to, uh, develop Admin Portal for the call center. And after that we started to, um, to quote, uh, the platform. And you did it in three months.

Amanda: So you, you created the frontline customer service portal in two days over a weekend. Yes. And then three months later you had rebuilt the, the point system for Wiiv.

Cécile: Yes, the basic one, not the promotion part, but the basic, at least on the total basket, all the base benefits. We were ready in December, uh, to, uh, so three months after. Yeah. So it’s a lot of work that’s remarkable. Remarkable. Yeah, incredible. And, uh, it’s one of the reason we won this point, this, uh, award, uh, at IBL Innovation and Excellence Award because, uh, it was remarkable.

Yeah, and it costs zero repeat to the partners .

Amanda: I love that. I just, just so that listeners have, Let’s Talk Loyalty, understand some of the terminology. Cécile is referring to Wiivers. Um, which is actually W I I V E R S cause the program is Wiiv, W I I V and the members are known as Wiivers, which I think is absolutely lovely.

So, uh, that’s absolutely incredible. This story is still blowing my mind, Cécile. It really is. So I think those awards are so, so very, so, very worthy. I mean, I, I’ve never heard anything quite like this. What, what would you say has been the most difficult part of the in-house build? Like the task at hand?

Cécile: The, the difficulty, um, is for me, uh, Because, uh, it’s nearly one guy who, who did that, you know, in, in the team. So, and this, and this person is also the manager of all the Wiiv IT team. So, um, it was to, to be able to say, okay, don’t disturb. Uh, my, my colleague. Yeah. We will only do that, you know, and be able to say, this is our priority.

We need to add the system as soon as possible ready. So for this reason, um, He has to be focused on, on, on coding and when you could, you can’t do, uh, other stuff and be, uh, on other issues, you know? So, uh, it was one of, for me, one of the difficulty to be in the project mode and operational mode at the same time. Okay.

Yeah. So, uh, and it’s say, okay, operation. We will do it another way, and work on your, what you can do and we can’t do at your place, you know? So, uh, um, this is one of the things was really, it was a bit difficult. Of course, the partners were really with us in collaboration. But when we were ready in December, they were not, because it’s, uh, busy, the busiest period of the, of the year.

So they couldn’t, uh, test and have team available to implement, uh, the things. So we had to wait. Until February, uh, beginning of February to, uh, to launch the everything. And we had also to choose, you know, at a certain time, we need to choose exactly what we want to do, uh, because we, and be able to, uh, to leave, I think with, uh, the minimum vital product, I would say.

Yeah. Uh, I think we use a lot of this kinda, uh, Terminology in agile methodology, um, for development. Uh, it’s what we did. Uh, uh, yes, but it’s having me and having my IT manager just doing and working on that things was, uh, This is, was, this was a bit difficult. .

Amanda: I can imagine. I mean, you’ve, you’ve, you’ve phrased it so beautifully around the challenges between being in the operational environment of a fully fledged program running versus, but not, versus, and simultaneously in a build environment, sort of a ca, you know, the upfront build.

So, and I’m sure your IT manager has a new set of skills that he never thought he had previously. He obviously needs to be highly recognized. Uh, one, one of the things I truly loved about what you said you did in the crisis mode and in the first 48 hours, which really. Speaks to the heart of what I experienced working with you and your team was that you thought about the call center customer service angle first.

So you developed that front end portal in the first 48 hours so that your Wiivers could get that reassurance of my points balance is X, Y, Z. Or please don’t worry, we can look after you. So talk to us a little bit more about how, I mean, I’m sure it was absolute crisis management as well for call center staff.

So how did that, how did you manage that?

Cécile: So what we did is, uh, first thing we, we, we develop all we imagine all the question we could have. And we prepare all the answers. This was, uh, a long, uh, touchy word work because each word counts, you know? Yeah. Uh, and I, um, my team, I twice a day, uh, meetings with them in the morning and in the afternoon to go through all the difficult tickets we receive, or difficult question.

To see how to tackle them, how to be sure that we were answering with the good word. Um, and so it was a really, uh, for me, it was essential because we, we, we didn’t want to have everybody knocking at our door and asking for the points and doing vouchers. So we really need to be sure that the Wiiver was with us and they were, uh, they trust us that we will have, uh, the situation resolve as soon as possible, so, the agent of the call center, of the Wiiv call center was really, I was with them every day, uh, every day during weeks, huh, Amanda?

So morning and afternoon. I, are we okay. Did we and so well or not. And, uh, I would say that also my team here, uh, They are they love people. I know you, I know you know them. You, you met them. Yeah. So, uh, they’re really close to our weaves and so, and they did a great, good job. Yeah.

Amanda: That’s incredible. And I think you told me last time we spoke that out of all of this crisis, you only had 27 negative customer contacts, which is just credit to the approach you took. Cause if you’d taken a different approach, for example, to build the rules engine back before the customer front facing portal, I think that would’ve been dramatically different. You would’ve had hundreds, thousands of customers frustrated that they couldn’t get the answers they needed.

So, um, I’m really, it’s very commendable the approach you took. You did mention earlier that one of the things you haven’t been able to necessarily, replicate as quickly as you wanted was the promotional engine. So has that caused, did that cause a bit of, you know, problems or how have you, how have you moved around that?

Cécile: Yes, because you know, um, in this crisis. We got four months, uh, without any earning points. Okay? Yeah. So, uh, of course when you see the base base offer and when it is, um, put in discount, it can seem, the, the, Wiiver was like, maybe it’s, it is not a lot when you transform points in discount, you know?

Yeah. So this is, was not, uh, a funny part for, for them, but also for us to manage, you know, say it’s only that in discount, it’s not enough, et cetera. So, um, we. We felt that, uh, maybe we would lose our Wiiver, uh, if we don’t have more, um, promotion, um, for them. And so when, when I see that the numbers, because during four months we didn’t have any data.

We couldn’t know how much people continue to use a card to get the discount at the. Yeah. Uh, we don’t, yeah. And when we, we launch in, uh, in February, we saw that, uh, it was not all the Wiivers, uh, back again with our cards and we follow really well all the data on, on and all the figures on that. And, uh, when I asked my team say, okay, now we need to really put, the effort of the promotion engine to be able to do bonus points on special products because, uh, we need to, to be able to have nice stuff to propose to our Wiivers as soon as possible. And this part is really more complex. It takes more time. It’s complex. Uh, it’s not easy. Uh, we, we, uh, takes and then again, we had to say, okay.

The team focused on development stop with all, uh, operation operational issues, you have to, to take your time to do it. It was at least six weeks of, uh, coding just this part. Uh, and when we start again to have bonus promotion, uh, and back to, to, as it was before, we really see, really an increase of engagement on, on the Wiiv card, but not only at the Wiivers on the Wiivers side, I will say, but also in-stores because the cashiers were more also motivated to ask for the card because they knew that the, some great deals to do and Yeah. And they are also members themselves, you know? Yeah, of course. So it’s, it’s on the both side. Absolutely. So for the promotion engine, uh, really is really, really important.

Really important if you want, uh, to keep a loyalty program in alive.

Amanda: Absolutely. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s a given. It’s not just about the base program, but it’s how you keep the customer engaged with all the extra promotions and communications. So yes. Wow. This story still is, um, it takes my breath away a little bit, so I just wanna, wanna ask you. I hope no one else in the industry has to endure this. I have never come across it before. So I was learning when I spoke to you, um, and I’m still learning, listening to you today. So, I’m hoping none of the Let’s Talk Loyalty, um, listeners ever have to enjoy what you’ve been through in the sense of having to manage such crisis.

So what would you leave them with in terms of advice? Like what are your final words of advice for listeners, if ever this comes across their unfortunate path?

Cécile: What I’ve learned, uh, Amanda, is that first, if I need to have one advice to say to all the listeners, is to, to have access always to your database. Yeah, always, and keep that a backup outside your, your system you are using because you never know what can happen, what can happen. You see the, this scenario we couldn’t imagine, but it happens. Okay? And we are, we, we are not the, the only client of a service provider. So, uh, so this is the first thing your database, you need to have control on it. And to, to be able to have a backup. The second thing I would say, also, I’ve always the second plan for your communication system. If your communication system is inside your loyalty system, uh, be prepared to have another, another, B plan. Okay. Um, yeah, because this is also one of the reason, uh, we could control the frustration, let’s say, of the Wiivers.

Imagine that we didn’t communicate with them. They arrive at the, at the, at the stores and say it doesn’t work. And then I can’t redeem. I can’t do anything, you know? Yeah, and like this for this one day, okay, it’s happening. Sometimes you need to do technical improvement on the system, whatever happens.

But for this and this, it’s not possible. So first database in your control. Two, a B plan for your communication system. Yeah. If the system is inside your, your loyalty system and third I would say to have a good, a good IT team , uh, I really lucky to have a really good one. Uh, we have, three now five, because we got developers. I, we’ll talk about that after. But, um, yes, our good IT team, they really understand well the system and the business. This is, uh, I think one of, uh, our key success, uh, the IT guide in my team, they are not only IT guide, they understand data and they understand the business. Okay.

Yeah. So, uh, they knew also what was really important to do. Um, so this is my free advice. I will, my advice be free all the time. ,

Amanda: I love that. Always have a, I mean, how fundamental is that for everybody? Have access to your database, always just in case, have a fantastic backup communication process and have an awesome IT team that not only understands it, but the business and data.

So, um, absolutely sound, sound solid advice. Okay, so let’s, let’s look to the future. You’ve told us the, the drama you’ve endured, but how the IBL group has come out of it so remarkably strongly because of the approach and crisis management you took. So what’s next for Wiiv in Mauritius?

Cécile: Okay. And so I will say that when we were, rebuilding or recoding the system. We went through the, um, an LFPA process. FP process. RFP process. Yeah. Yes. Uh, and we see that all the solution, um, also the solution for coalition program because Wiiv is a coalition program, which is, uh, makes maybe the things more complex. Okay. Yeah. Um, with really different type of, uh, activity sectors, uh, partners from, uh, different activity sectors.

Um, we went through this RFP process and, and we, we, we realized that the offer on the market was really, were really expensive for us for the volume of transaction we can do in Mauritius, which is really a small market for the business. Mauritius is only 1 million per uh, persons on the country. Yeah. You know, and, uh, a lot of them are under 18 years old.

So it’s not a big market, so, uh, it was so too much, too expensive for us. Uh, the opex matter, so the CapEx. Yeah. Uh, so, and at the same time we were, showing our management, but, uh, yeah, we, we can do it. Okay. So the management, the top management asked us to, to consider if we could, uh, develop our own, uh, loyalty platform.

And, uh, we think, yes. We can do it. We really well understand the business. We understand what also the coalition programs, and we know how to code this kind of thing now. Okay? Uh, we know also, uh, the weaknesses of what we did. Let’s say that of a moment. We did the nice, uh, house. Yeah, but we need, we need to build a, a, a building, huh?

Uh, so, uh, because we, we know where we want to. Uh, and with the actual system, we won’t be able to do it. So we have to rebuild everything. Uh, the foundation started, uh, um, and, and liable to be able to develop a good, uh, loyalty platform. We have a strong focus on, uh, the proportion engine. Yeah. Uh, I think which way we can do a big difference on the market.

Uh, because enrollment and all kind of this kind of pain, is quite, is quite, uh, uh, for the other programs in Mauritius it’s quite easy, but all the, all the rewarding system and the promotion engines, I think really it’s where we can do the difference. And because we got this experience in coalition program, um, I’m confident we can, we can create something great.

So we already hire two new developers. Um, so now the Wiiv it team is bigger and we started already the project.

Amanda: Okay. Wonderful, wonderful. Wow. So Cécile, we are actually coming to the end of our interview. Is there anything else you’d like to share with the listeners of Let’s Talk Loyalty?

Cécile: Oh, I think, I think one of the biggest, uh, learning we can have with this story is that, uh, a crisis can be a wonderful opportunity, um, to create something new, um, to learn a lot and to see your team to submit what I see, to see my team. We are their best and discover them. The, the, all the qualities they they got and what, what they could do.

It was really, uh, for each of them I, marketing and communication, the client service support, uh, the IT team, all of them realize that they, they, they, They could do great things. Um, and I’m really happy for them that they were recognized at the ideal excellence and innovation award for their work. Uh, so this is a great achievement.

So yeah, every crisis can be an opportunity to grow and to be stronger and to, to learn and stay also humble. You know, uh, in one, in one year we, we won this two loyalty marketing awards. One year after we, the system crushed and one year after game, two years after this, we went two new awards and we are still still there.

So you see it’s like life, huh?

Amanda: That’s a big, that’s and down. Yeah. I was gonna say, that’s a big rollercoaster you’ve been on, and I just want to commend you on your leadership because the way you described the opportunity coming out of crisis and most favorably, how you’ve seen your remarkable team. Just be at their best and grow and learn new things about themselves.

And so I just wanna wish you and your remarkable team so much success for the, hopefully it’ll be less of a rollercoaster and more of a, a ascension up the mountain from here on, but, So Cécile Henry, your the IBL Group loyalty Manager. It was an absolute pleasure learning about what you’ve shared with us today.

So from all of us at Let’s Talk Loyalty, Merci beaucoup, Cécile.

You’re welcome. A Please to be here.

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